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So, what’s the deal with this new Maybank2u (M2U) website?

Yes, there are finally getting rid of the ugly website which has been active since I started using Maybank2u in 2002. Of course, they’ve added many features along the way, but the ugly structure has remained intact. Here it is:

Just look at the clutter! If you are a first time user, you might thought someone just hacked Maybank2u!

Now, let’s look at the new M2U website which would be made available to the public sometime in mid October. Drum roll please…

To view the old site and new site superimposed together, click here.

Revamping a website is no easy task. When you are aligning a few tables, including a new link or adding a new product banner, you are basically “updating” the site. But when you are going to revamp a website, a whole lot of issues need to be taken into consideration. From the backend system all the way to the impact the revamp will have on your branding, this resource-intensive undertaking will cost you lots of money and time.

Before you start revamping a website, you’d better have a very clear idea of what you intend to achieve from the revamp. If the purpose of the revamp is to reduce operational cost in the 400 physical branches nationwide, would the reduced operational cost justify the revamping effort?

Who would benefit most from the revamp? Is this going to be a customer-oriented revamp? Or is the revamp a move to migrate away from the existing legacy platform? Of course, only Maybank’s own management would have the answers to all these questions. As an observer, I can only speculate based on the things I’ve seen.

After having some hands-on experience with the pre-launched M2U, it was quite obvious that the revamp was a major cosmetic upgrade.

I am estimating the cost of the revamp from between RM 500K to RM 1 million (this figure has been generated using “Pluck From Air” algorithm).

The revamp however did not introduce anything new to the way online banking is done here in Malaysia. The login page procedure remains the same, my favorite fund transfer features are there, the pay bills features are also there, only this time, there are more merchants in the list. Basically nothing “revolutionary”. The only difference is that the links are in much more organized than the previous M2U edition. Maybe there are alot of changes behind the scene, but I definitely cannot tell from my first hand experience with the new site. Since the site is still being fine-tuned, there is no guarantee I won’t be seeing this screen.

Here’s a screenshot of the new M2U’s dashboard:

I was actually expecting more of a functional upgrade of M2U. Yes, the cosmetic upgrade looks really good, but it’s not going to change my online banking experience dramatically.

Alrite, here’s what I really want from my online banking platform.

I want my logon page to appear in the homepage, so that I don’t have to click on a logon link which redirects me to a logon page. Let me logon straight from the homepage. It will save me a considerable amount of time. Yes, I know I could bookmark the logon page, but why can’t you just let people logon from the homepage?

I want a sign-in seal. This would allow me to avoid being tricked into a phishing page. Although I don’t fall for such cheap shots, I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry. This sign-in seal idea’s been around for quite sometime, why don’t you start using it?

Since it’s never a good thing to be everything to everyone, I suggest M2U allow me to personalize my banking experience. Let me choose the service that I would most commonly use and keep the rest out of my sight. In short, don’t stuff things down my throat.

For the past 6 years, I’ve been using only 3 types of services:

1) Checking my account balance and statement
2) Fund transfer
3) Pay my bills

You might want to recommend me features such as subscribing to the latest IPO offerings, or renewing my car insurance. Thanks but no thanks; I would look it up under “View Other Services�? if I am interested. Otherwise, please don’t clutter up the page with things I won’t be using.

Let me customize my own dashboard into something like the following:

Also, I would prefer that you do not show me things that are not relevant to me. For example, in the screen below, you have a “Loan�? tab. I don’t have a loan with you, so that tab is totally irrelevant to me, and there’s nothing I can do with it anyway. Why not just remove it until I sign up a loan with you?

Also, I have a suggestion which can further make M2U the preferred choice for online banking. Provide an Application Programming Interface (API) that will allow online businesses and business that uses online transactions to interact with your banking platform. Something similar to PayPal. This will help a lot of budding online entrepreneurs and reduce a lot of administrative business processes. This way, you will directly increase your subscriber base by another tens of thousands.

This also means you should avoid integrating lifestyle elements into your website. The fact is you cannot integrate everything under your portal, lest you want M2U to turn into a departmental store front. Let the businesses do it independently. Provide them with the API that allows them to easily integrate their payment solution with your platform. You should just do what you do best- to provide seamless and reliable online transaction which makes online shopping a great experience. Stop turning M2U into a lifestyle portal. Let me reiterate again: You are a bank and you should focus on doing what bank does best- providing a reliable transaction platform.

Introduce online banking services that would truly make M2U remarkable. Connect M2U customers directly with Western Union or even PayPal.

Another issue I have with the new revamp is that you seemed to have forgotten that Malaysia is a multi-cultural society. By just translating M2U into Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil, I can guarantee that you will see a surge of new subscribers. Please do that in the next revision. At least as a form of corporate social responsibility.

That is basically the kind of online banking experience I am expecting. Maybe not from this version of M2U, but I do hope that in the next revamp, the items in my wishlist will materialize.

While the launching of a financial institution new website might sound rather serious and formal, the organizers definitely provided a very good place for all the attendees who are mostly bloggers like me to network with each other. It’s also through this event that I finally met KC Lau, the man behind the widely-read kclau.com. Here’s a picture of the only two PF bloggers at the event.

Thanks Pin for the snapshot! KC, hope you don’t mind I leeched the photo from your site :-D

Also here are a few other journals by other attendees who were at the event:

http://www.websitesolution.com/2008/09/08/maybank2u-20-sneak-preview-the-launch/
http://kclau.com/website-review/maybank2u-20-exclusive-preview/
http://blogjunkie.net/2008/09/maybank-puts-its-users-squarely-in-the-drivers-seat-with-m2u-20
http://www.suanie.net/2008/09/10/maybank2u-20-preview/
http://www.redesignmalaysia.com/
http://www.shoppingnsales.com/blog/?p=22
http://nigelais.blogspot.com/2008/09/m2u-20-exclusive-preview.html

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